Thoughts on Chinook

[Juan De Fuca]

I just bought a pound of Chinook pellets, and I've never used them before. I've read plenty of descriptions, but would love to here what everyone has to say. I'm planning to brew an all chinook IPA to get to know them, but I also have a bunch of cascades, and thought about pairing them in an APA. I was thinking I'd split the addtions 50/50 at 20, 10, and 0, and bitter with the chinooks, or magnum @60. Anybody care to chime in on that? I've also read that chinooks are good for dry hopping, so i'll definitely try that in the IPA. Thanks!

[EL TIZZO]

I love this hop...they seem to balance out the fruitiness of the citrusy hops with a kind of spicy/piney flavor...I like to use them halfway thru the boil (20-30 min) of my ipas and they are really nice as a dry hop...I put them in at 30 min and in the dry hop of my last ipa along with columbus, simcoe, and centennial...turned out great...buy them up if you see them though, they seem to be disappearing quickly

[Juan De Fuca]

Cool. I look forward to trying it out.

I bought mine from the Michigan Hop Alliance.

http://michiganhopalliance.com/

[herbaljoe]

I'm also a huge fan of this hop. It's amazingly versatile. You can use it for bittering and achieve a super punchy firm bitterness due to its fairly high cohumulone content, or dial it back and get a fairly clean bitterness similar to Magnum or Summit. When used as a late addition in the boil I find it to be very spicy, peppery, herbal, and resinous. In the dry hop I get a totally different character that I would describe as tropical and very much like pineapple. It seems that when the oils are extracted hot (ie in the boil) it comes out tasting different than when they are extracted cool (in the dry hop). I believe this is true of most hops but I notice more of a difference with Chinook than any of the others I've done this experiment with.

FYI it has been pretty much determined that Arrogant Bastard is made with Chinook as the only hop (but is not dry hopped). I've made a few clone attempts and I find it to be extremely close, so if you want to taste that spicy Chinook character, pick up a bottle of that.

[Juan De Fuca]

Herbaljoe, that's great info. I'll give arrogant bastard a try. Thanks a bunch.

[siwelwerd]

I don't like it as a bittering hop, I find it harsh and always use something like Magnum or Warrior instead. I always get a piny, spicy, resinous character out of it, even some minty/woody notes. I like it best in a complementary role--either complementing other fruity/floral American hop notes, or to complement some of the malt flavors in an American Brown, or Black IPA.

[BDawg]

I like to mix it half and half with a milder hop like horizon when bittering.
GREAT flavor and aroma hop.

[GreenBrewer]

I haven't used it in one of my personal recipes yet, but it pairs nice with centennial the two combine well to make a nice earthy, pine bitterness that isn't too harsh.